Justice for Tara
Tara was a friend of friends.
When I was first told of what happened to her, all I could think of was how could someone be so random and people so apathetic.
Tara Santelices, 23 years old graduate of the Ateneo de Manila was shot in a robbery-hold up incident inside a passenger jeep along Felix Ave. Cainta, Rizal. She was on her way home past midnight (August 6, 2008, about 12:30 AM) with a friend coming from a night out on the eve of her 23rd birthday.
Somewhere along a dark stretch of Felix Ave. near Karangalan Village, a man posing as a passenger, pulled a gun and announced a hold-up. The man grabbed Tara’s bag. Instinctively, Tara held on to her bag and in the ensuing struggle, the man shot Tara and hit her on the left side of her forehead. After getting the bag of the others, the man jumped off the passenger jeep. Tara’s companion, who has never been in that situation asked for help from the other passengers, and told the driver to bring them to the nearest hospital, as blood was already spurting out of Tara’s head. But instead of driving speedily to the nearest medical facility, the driver drove as if it was one of his regular trips, even stopping three times to unload a passenger. Of the five or six other passengers, only one bothered to help Tara’s friend carry her. The rest just went about their business as if nothing serious happened. In fact some of the passengers even opted to stop the vehicle for them to get off, wasting precious time for medical attention. The driver eventually took them to a small clinic. But even as Tara’s companion was talking to a medical personnel in that small clinic, the driver drove-off leaving them to look for a taxi to bring Tara to a better equipped hospital. Tara was given the appropriate medical attention only about four hours later. The police went to the hospital to talk to the witness (Tara’s friend) only a day later.
That was just…so wrong. I couldn’t even begin to think where things started to go wrong.
But we can do something.
If you haven’t noticed it yet, this site is mostly about comics that complain about something. Some people say that complaining is unproductive, but I beg to differ. Done correctly (or amusingly), it brings somethings that needs changing to light. So that people who have influence over it can change it.
Signing a petition is no different. It makes it known that a collective believes in something. And in this case, we believe that we could do something so that other people won’t fall to the same fate as Tara did. We want moral obligation from people. We want vigilance. We want people to know what they’re supposed to do.
Make your voice heard: Sign the petition.
September 1st, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Tara is close to me, she is the daughter of my business associates, Larry and Anne. Prayers can move mountains. God’s miracles are measured by the how much faith we have in Him. My faith in God is so great that I know Tara will get up from her sick bed and come out whole and unbroken, shalom, and all this is for God’s glory. I encourage everyone to pray, pray, pray for God’s healing power.